The world reacted in shock this week after 15 Catholics were killed in a Sunday prayer service led by a lay catechist in the village of Essakane, located in the country’s northern region which borders Mali and Niger.
Father Jean-Pierre Sawadogo, vicar general of the Diocese of Dori, deplored the killings as a terrorist attack, though he did not assign culpability to a specific organization. In the same statement, Sawadogo prayed for the conversion of those who “continue to wreak death and desolation in the country.”
The Diocese of Dori confirmed to Vatican News on Monday evening that 12 were killed in the initial attack, while three others died later in the hospital.
Al Jazeera, meanwhile, reported that a mosque in Natiaboani was attacked on Sunday by armed rebels around 5 a.m., leaving dozens dead.
“The terrorists entered the town early morning. They surrounded the mosque and shot at the faithful, who were gathered there for the first prayer of the day. Several of them were shot, including an important religious leader,” a local source AFP, as reported in the French newspaper Le Monde.
The two attacks are the latest examples of a dramatic escalation of violence directed towards religious groups in the country, which has experienced a broad destabilization brought about by the 2014 Libyan Civil War.
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